Bible in Schools
I just read this article about a little boy in Kindergarten and ‘Show and Tell’. The children were told to bring something in that was “All About Me.” And the little boy wanted to read from his favorite book, the Bible. He brought in his mother to read from the Bible, however the school barred his mother from reading the Bible saying that it was against the law of ‘separation of church and state’. And the courts say the school was not being unreasonable. You can read the article at Christianpost.com
I think we all need to be reminded that the seperation of chruch and stat is NOT in the U.S. constitution and it is not a law. It was only mentioned in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote. Thomas Jefferson was concerned about the government creating a one state religion. The first amendment is there so Americans have the freedom of religion. The first amendment is meant to keep the government from getting involved in the church, not the church getting involved in the government.
Teachers used to read the Bible in schools, it is what made this country great. And our Founding Fathers would be shocked to hear that the little boy could not share his favorite passage, they encouraged religious freedom and expression. We need the Bible back in schools to turn this country around.
Check out BibleintheSchools.org where they are fighting to add Bible study electives to public schools! They have to be requested by the principal and are not paid for by taxpayers, only private funding. They are succeeding in Tennessee and hope to spread thoughout the nation!
Here are a few quotes regarding the Bible and education:
“Education is useless without the Bible.”
-Noah Webster
“If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy, If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.”
-Daniel Webster
“Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”
-Daniel Webster
“The Bible is a book containing the history of all men and of all nations and is a necessary part of a polite education.”
-Henry Laurens was president of the Continental Congress, a U.S. Diplomat, and was selected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
“[The] Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life”. “[It] should be read in our schools in preference to all other books from its containing the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public temporal happiness.” [emphasis added]
-Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a noted physician, and treasurer of the U.S. Mint for 14 years, is also referred to as the “father of public school education.”
